COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings returned to profit in the September 2017 quarter from a loss the year before with the bottom line boosted by earnings from the sale of a hotel.
Interim accounts filed with the stock exchange showed September 2017 quarter group net profit at Rs105 million compared with a net loss of Rs175 million the year before.
The accounts showed a sharp increase in other operating income to Rs365 million from Rs17 million the previous year.
A note to the accounts said this reflected gains from the sale of its entire holding in its fully owned subsidiary M.P.S Hotels (Pvt) Ltd which owns Hotel Hilltop in Kandy in September 2017.
The accounts showed profit on disposal of subsidiaries at Rs307.6 million.
Group sales rose 16.6% to 3.8 billion in the quarter with earnings per share at 30 cents. Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings traded at Rs30.90 Tuesday. In the six months to September 2017 Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings made a loss per share of 36 cents.
A segmental analysis showed that sales increased in both its resorts in Sri Lanka and abroad, classified as South Asia and the Middle East, they still made a loss of Rs80 million, down from loss of Rs122 million.
Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings said its Sri Lankan hotels made a pre-tax profit of Rs20 million in the six months to September 2017 compared with a loss of Rs106 million the year before.
Pre-tax losses in its resorts in South Asia and the Middle East widened to Rs100 million from Rs16 million the year before.
